


better beware (i go bump in the night)

by bbeanseu



Category: VIXX
Genre: Alternate Universe - Serial Killers, Blood and Gore, Established Relationship, M/M, Minor Character Death, Murder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:21:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27331858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bbeanseu/pseuds/bbeanseu
Summary: Hongbin’s eyes flicker up to meet Jaehwan’s.“Don’t take too long,” he says. Jaehwan’s smile softens, and then he’s leaning forward just a little closer so that their foreheads touch.;or: the serial killer au nobody asked for but i wrote anyway
Relationships: Lee Hongbin/Lee Jaehwan | Ken
Comments: 4
Kudos: 14





	better beware (i go bump in the night)

**Author's Note:**

> this was supposed to be for vixxtober but djsjdhjs look where that brought us. also it's so short but i!! tried my best!!!
> 
> also!!! this is literally. a serial killer au so please proceed w caution.
> 
> tw for descriptions blood and gore and torture. nothing between kenbin!! no harm shall come to kenbin today.
> 
> title comes from mz hyde by halestorm
> 
> i hope u enjoy !!

In the dead of the night, Jaehwan sings himself a song.

It’s two in the morning and the city is asleep, and there’s nothing but the chirping of crickets and the ticking of the clock— rhythmic and repetitive as it counts by the second— and the soft sound of Jaehwan’s song breaking through the silence that rings in his ears. It’s two in the morning and the grogginess has long since seeped from his bones, replaced by adrenaline, by impatience, by almost— excitement.

Jaehwan sits on the ratty old sofa with his legs folded against his chest and his arms wrapped around his knees, and he sings to himself as he waits, tilting his head from side to side together with the tune. The old lightbulb flickers overhead, staining the entire room with a dull, yellowed glow.

He keeps his eyes on the man lying passed out on the floor. The man with his hands bound behind his back, his cheeks pressed against the filthy tiles. He isn’t moving, apart from the steady up and down of his chest.

Jaehwan sings to himself, a little lullaby, and waits.

* * *

He can’t sleep tonight.

He’s been staring up at the ceiling for hours, watching the little glow-in-the-dark stickers glow in the dark. He’s been listening to the sounds of Hongbin’s breathing, evened out, calm and tranquil, and the distant sounds of car engines and midnight airplanes and the static of the TV one room away.

There’s restlessness in his bones, even in the comfort of Hongbin’s arms around him. There’s restlessness, even when the coolness of Hongbin’s skin— his lover pulling him close, his nose in Jaehwan’s hair— soothes the flames that have settled underneath Jaehwan’s skin. There’s restlessness in his bones, despite the soft covers and the feeling of just wanting to shut his eyes and drift away into sleep.

Counting sheep doesn’t help, so Jaehwan tries singing a little song to himself, murmuring soft notes into the darkness of the shared bedroom. It doesn’t help, either— Hongbin stirs, grumbling in protest underneath his breath, and Jaehwan can’t help but laugh a little even as Hongbin glares up at him, his hair mussed with his bangs falling to his face and his eyes red and blown.

Adorable, he thinks, barely resisting the urge to say it out loud. He sits himself up on the bed and smiles down at his sleepy lover.

“Go back to sleep, love,” he says instead, keeping his voice low and brushing the hair from Hongbin’s face. “Don’t let me wake you.”

“Little too late for that,” Hongbin says with a scowl, furrowing his eyebrows as he peered blearily up at Jaehwan before pulling the covers up over his face. “You move too much. Sleep.”

“I can’t,” Jaehwan says with a small pout.

Hongbin snorts, the sound muffled by the covers. “I figured.”

Jaehwan pouts even more. Hongbin doesn’t show any signs of response, so in the end he just sighs and hops off of the bed, stretching his arms up above his head. He can feel Hongbin’s eyes on him; can just imagine him peeking out from under the blankets, just his eyes and a fluffy head of hair, and smiles to himself.

“Where are you going?” Hongbin asks, his voice rough with sleep and words coming out a little slow. Jaehwan’s smile widens just a little more. He turns around, sees that Hongbin’s sat up himself too, slouching forward with all of his weight supported on his arms.

“Taking a walk,” Jaehwan says, moving so that he’s back on the bed, kneeling in front of Hongbin. He presses a tiny peck to Hongbin’s forward and brings his hands up to smush Hongbin’s cheeks.

Hongbin’s voice comes out a little muffled. “Again?”

“Stop pouting, Binnie,” he teases. “I won’t take too long.”

“I don’t pout,” Hongbin says, but he isn’t pulling away. His cheeks feel warm underneath Jaehwan’s palms.

Jaehwan grins and pecks him again— on the nose, this time. “Yes you do.”

Hongbin glowers at him, his eyes narrowing into slits. It’s halfhearted, Jaehwan can tell. He only laughs again and shifts so that he’s sitting cross-legged. Cute, he thinks again, watching as Hongbin’s tongue pokes out and licks over chapped lips.

“I’m hungry,” Hongbin mutters. His voice is bordering on a whine, and the sound of it may as well have turned Jaehwan’s insides into a puddle of fuzzy pink goop. Jaehwan thinks, Cuuuuute.

“I know, lover.” Jaehwan grins even wider and ignores the way Hongbin rolls his eyes. He pulls one hand back, the other one still cupping Hongbin’s pale cheek, the pad of his thumb trailing gently against porcelain skin. “I’ll get something for you while I’m out, alright?”

Hongbin’s eyes flicker up to meet Jaehwan’s.

“Don’t take too long,” he says. Jaehwan’s smile softens, and then he’s leaning forward just a little closer so that their foreheads touch.

His hand falls from Hongbin’s face so it can search for Hongbin’s between the covers. His fingers gently curl around Hongbin’s, so much smaller than his own, hand warm where his lover’s is chilled to the bone. His lips feel like fire when he brings Hongbin’s hand up and presses a tender kiss to his knuckles. He stares up at Hongbin form underneath hooded lashes and smiles against cool skin.

“Patience, sweetest,” Jaehwan murmurs into the breath of space between them. “I’ll be back soon. Stay put, okay?”

He hops off the bed after that, only winking at Hongbin when his lover glares up at him. He can feel Hongbin’s eyes follow him even as he leaves, can feel them heavy on his back even when the door’s swung shut behind him.

Jaehwan licks his lips and shudders.

* * *

Jaehwan waits.

Too long, he thinks, it’s taking too long, maybe he used up too much of the tranq. He’s getting impatient. Hongbin’s expecting him home. Hongbin’s waiting for him with promises of cuddles and kisses and a soft bed. Jaehwan can’t take too long. 

But then a groan echoes, shatters the fragile silence around Jaehwan, and he abruptly stops his singing. He sits on the sofa— very, very still— and keeps waiting. The clock ticks; counts down the seconds. The crickets chirp. There is no more groaning after that, and so Jaehwan keeps singing. He gets off the couch and calmly walks forward, until he’s standing in front of the man tied up on the floor. Jaehwan crouches down so that he’s on eye level with the man, adrenaline fizzling in his veins.

“Hi,” he says, smiling brightly, “Did you like my song?”

The man doesn’t seem to realize anything at first, just blinking up at Jaehwan with glazed eyes and pupils blown wide. “Where—” he breathes out, and his breath smells like cheap beer, and Jaehwan immediately squeals and winces away, face twisting in disgust.

“Fucking— gross,” Jaehwan complains, hand coming out to pinch his nose. “Take a fucking breath mint or something.”

The man stares up at him. Jaehwan can practically see the gears turning in his head, can see the way his brain catches up with what he’s seeing. He twists in his bonds and pulls and squirms, and Jaehwan can feel his grin widen as the man writhes and kicks as he tries to get loose, all to no avail.

Awfully cliché, he thinks, watching the man’s eyes quickly widen, realizing the severity of the situation. Watching as the cloudy glaze clears from his eyes. It’s so awfully cliché, but still amusing nonetheless.

The man slowly brings his gaze up at Jaehwan, meets his eyes— and Jaehwan only grins.

* * *

He doesn’t know how long he’s been doing it.

But it’s been long enough to be a routine, long enough for him to be able to do it quick and clean, long enough for him to be good at it.

He knows doesn’t really know why, either.

It just fascinates him, he supposes, the way blood stains the skin like a flower coming into bloom. It fascinates him, the way it seeps from a cut and dribbles down to the side. The way it spills onto marble tiles like liquidated gemstones. He likes the way a sharp blade sinks into skin, screams ringing like musical notes in his ears.

* * *

“Please don’t hurt me,” the man blubbers, tears gathering at the corners of his eyes. He’s still squirming, shaking form head to toe and curled up in the closest he can get to a fetal position. Silly man; it isn’t like he can go anywhere. He continues anyway, begging like some sort of pathetic little dog, his head whipping in frantic terror between Jaehwan’s smile and the knife he’s holding in his hand. “Please let me go, I’ll do anything—”

He’s cut off by his own scream, ringing shrill and sharp in the air. There’s blood oozing from the side of his arm where Jaehwan had slashed a long diagonal line across it. It pools on the floor, a little puddle, and Jaehwan can’t tear his gaze away from it.

“You’re incredibly pretty,” Jaehwan says, making sure to look the man in the eye, “But you're hardly special, sweetheart.”

The man only lets out another strangled scream.

Jaehwan sighs, long-suffering, “You’re lucky tonight; I’m making it quick for you.”

“Monster!” he screeches. “Fucking monster!”

The words register in Jaehwan’s brain. He breaks off into peals of laughter, so hard his stomach starts to hurt. Tears are stinging at the corners of his eyes. The man’s looking at him like he’s grown three heads, or gone insane, and Jaehwan just laughs harder.

It feels like forever before he manages to calm himself down, his cheeks sore and his stomach aching. He wipes the tears away from the corners of his eyes. “Oh, you don’t know shit,” he says, heaving out a deep breath. “Please stay still, I need to get back to my boyfriend.”

He’d fucking tranq him, but that would just be too easy— too boring. The blood always glows kind of differently when his victim is awake, screaming into the silence, hopeless and alone and in the middle of nowhere.

Jaehwan plays with his shiny little knife, licking up the blood trailing down the blunt side. “The thing about the human body,” he says, standing up and ignoring the pained whimpers coming from the man, “Is that it’s soㅡ sensitive. So raw. So easy to hurt.”

He turns the man over so that he’s lying on his stomach, face pressed against a puddle of his own blood. There are bruises blooming on his skin already where his wrists are tied; there’s still so much blood dripping from his open wound, but it isn’t enough, Jaehwan thinks.

The man doesn’t respond. Jaehwan squats again, to see him closer— his breathing is shallow and quick and his eyes are blown wide and he’s shaking even harder than before, the skin around his lips bitten bloody. Jaehwan frowns. “You’re not even screaming anymore. So boring. Let’s change that, shall we?”

Jaehwan sings as he works, cuts little lines into skin— not deep at all, just enough to sting and bleed, blood forming in thin, little lines— sits on the man’s back and grins as he thrashes and wails from underneath Jaehwan. His back is broad, muscled— it’s a beautiful blank canvas, and Jaehwan can’t wait to paint it red.

He screams so prettily too, high voice hitting staccato notes.

“What’s your name, pretty?” Jaehwan sing-songs. “Do you want me to carve it? I'm pretty good at art, you know.”

“Stop,” he sobs, “Please stop.”

Jaehwan smiles. “No.”

It’s not long before he gets bored, his restlessness form before having faded completely. The man’s gone quiet beneath him with his cheeks stained with tear tracks and blood, and Jaehwan sighs and leans back. He isn’t passed out, just sobbing quietly, choking on vomit and spit and the cloying, coppery taste on his tongue. He’s chanting the words are strung incoherently together, and Jaehwan leans closer, asks, “What did you say?”

“Kill me,” the man begs, “Please just kill me.”

Jaehwan considers it, for a moment, reaches for his knife and smiling privately as the man watches him with hypnotized desperation. He trails the edge across his abdomen, down his chest to the center of his stomach, and lets it hover, considering.

There’s a knock on the door.

Jaehwan freezes.

The man freezes, then screams.

“Help!” he shouts, voice crackling and weak but struggling against Jaehwan with a rush of newfound vigor and Jaehwan screeches, forcing him down by the neck. The man chokes, coughs, sputters, but— “Help me!” he screams again, strangled.

“Took too long,” Jaehwan huffs to himself, “Oh course—“

There are footsteps. The man underneath him is screaming louder now— it’s hurting Jaehwan’s ears, quite frankly, and maybe he should just stab the man to death but he can't, now— and crying uncontrollably, begging for help.

The footsteps come to a halt.

The lights flicker, once, twice, thrice, before going out completely.

“You took too long,” Hongbin's voice says, a pout evident in the way his voice quirks. “I wanted dinner.”

It fills the room, sounds like it's coming from nowhere and everywhere at once, closing in on them from all sides. Jaehwan's irritation ebbs away and he feels himself smile, looking up.

The man's gone quiet again. He's back to breathing hard and quick and fast, coughing, like he's keeping his sobs trapped in his chest and they're beating at it violently trying to get out. Jaehwan ignores him.

“Sorry, you know how I get,” Jaehwan says, standing and swaying on his feetㅡ they'd gotten cramped from supporting all of his weight for too long. He looks around him, sees nothing but darkness and eyes on the walls, hundreds of them, painted on the shadowed walls and glowing scarlet. Watching him. Watching them. “Come on down, Binnieㅡ I can't kiss you like this.”

The shadows melt off into the floor and the lights start to flicker again, on and off and on and off and on and offㅡ and then Hongbin's standing there, all pale skin and red lips and claws black and sharp, his veins stark and black and bumping against a thin layer of skin. His eyes are red, beady with anticipation, bloodlustㅡ Jaehwan thinks. Starvation.

He gives Hongbin a quick, tender kiss and says, “You do the honors.”

“You're just lazy,” Hongbin scoffs, but he's grinning wide and bright, rows upon rows of his teeth like knives.

“No,” Jaehwan says, “You're just hot when you're all covered in blood.”

Hongbin laughs and steps away from Jaehwan, moving one step closer to the bound man.

“Oh my God,” says the man, frail now, high with terror. “Oh my God what the fuck are youㅡ”

And Hongbin only grins and pulls the human up by the neck, pushes him against the wall. “You got a pretty one tonight,” Hongbin says offhandedly to Jaehwan. 

Jaehwan nods. “It's almost a shame,” he says, but he doesn't feel very sorry at all.

Hongbin only bares knife sharp teeth in response and tears into the man’s jugular before he can even scream, ripping into skin and chomping into flesh and sending splatters of blood everywhereㅡ the floor and the wall and their clothes. Jaehwan watches, entranced, watches as the man's screams die down as he gurgles and sputters on his own blood, watches as blood vessels burst and guts splatter on the walls, watches as Hongbin tears and ravages and drinks and feasts, all while shudders run up his spine.

And finally Hongbin pulls away, a bloody pool at his feet and scarlet dripping down his chin, his neck, his arms, he snaps his head to look at Jaehwan and grins, and Jaehwan thinks, he's fucking beautiful.

* * *

Jaehwan likes the blood.

He likes inflicting pain. He likes seeing people cry, bleedㅡ likes listening to them beg as the last slivers of hope fade from their eyes. 

But most of all, Jaehwan likes the way blood trails down Hongbin’s face, loves the stark way it contrasts when it splatters against Hongbin’s snowy skin and glinting teeth. Loves the way it matches the crimson of his lover’s eyes. It’s prettier than the way blood dribbles down his shiny little knife. Prettier than the way blood pools on the floor.

Jaehwan smiles at Hongbin, and Hongbin smiles back, his teeth marred with scarlet, his tongue laving over the bloody stains around his mouth.

And Jaehwan thinks:

 _Beautiful_.

**Author's Note:**

> kudos and comments and validation would be really cool


End file.
